What People Are Saying
People across Massachusetts and beyond are speaking out against Massport and Runway Realty Venture’s reckless plans for private jet hangar expansion at Hanscom Civil Airport (not the Air Force base).
Read on to see quotes from elected officials, environmental leaders, and regular folks calling out this disastrous proposal.
Chuck Collins
Program Director, Institute of Policy Studies
“…authors of the [Hanscom High Flyers] report, say such travel is a reason [Massport] should abandon a plan…to expand Hanscom’s private jet capacity. 'Private jet travel is ‘an indefensible extravagance on an overheating planet,’ said Chuck Collins, an author of the report. ‘We shouldn’t be expanding private jet infrastructure at Hanscom or anywhere.’”
U.S. Senator Ed Markey
“The climate crisis is indisputable. We just experienced the hottest summer on record with intense storms, severe wildfires, and devastating flooding. Private jets spew tons of carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to this crisis. Private jet travel is a luxury our climate cannot afford.”
State Representative Carmine Gentile
“It’s very important that people voice their opposition to the proposed 27 new private jet hangars AND continuation of the current level of private jet use in the U.S. locally, to the Governor and State legislators, and to our terrific Congressional delegation…”
“These private jets are dinosaurs and they’re dinosaurs because they put so much carbon in the air they undermine our other efforts to keep GHG out of the air and from polluting the planet.... The time has come to pull back on private jets”
“But the good news is: we have power. The thousands of people who have signed petitions, written letters, packed hearings, and have shown up here today are proof that this fight is far from over.
We are demanding that the Governor, Massport, and every elected official in Massachusetts reject this expansion and commit to a livable future.
Let’s make this crystal clear:
No to excuses.
No to Hanscom expansion
No to more private jet use, anywhere”
“Because climate justice means everyone, not just those who can afford to fly above the rest of us.”
State Senator Mike Barrett
“If 27 — or 18 — or just a dozen — of these hangars get built, the agency will never come back from the reputational damage. Going ahead would be an unforced error, one of the biggest ones in modern Massachusetts public policy. None of us should want this.“ Full statement here.
"I know the destruction you folks [Massport] intend to wreak on Massachusetts and I resent it.... Please don't erect these bogus environmental rationales for something that has nothing whatsoever to do with relieving the crisis that faces us in terms of climate. Just be honest about it. This is all about becoming a little richer yourselves by helping people even richer than you.”
“I don’t need to tell you…that insisting on private jet travel is the single most injurious thing a normal human being can do to hurt the climate.”
State Senator Cindy F. Friedman
“The Hanscom Field expansion for private jets is deeply problematic, and I can’t see the project bringing any benefit to the communities surrounding Hanscom or to the Commonwealth as a whole. It certainly does not benefit our environment or help us reach our climate goals…this project will hurt the public.”
-Sept 2023 Lexington Times, “The Little Airport That Could” by E. Ashley Rooney
State Representative Simon Cataldo
“...what can we say about what's going to happen at the vacated hangars in Plymouth and other locations? I think that one could actually take as true every single assertion that is being made here about ferry flights, and still come to the conclusion based on the basic principles of supply-demand economics, that this development will result in additional private jets being flown all around our communities."
Rev. Jamie Hinson-Rieger, Senior Minister, First Parish Bedford
Our vote to join [SPJE] was an expression of faith, an expression of our religious values that all people have a right to flourish, that all living things are worthy of care and protection, and the earth itself must be cared for and protected.
Caitlin Peale Sloan
Vice President, Conservation Law Foundation
The [Hanscom High Flyers report] underscored why “continuing to coddle the ultrawealthy by expanding private jet services is unjustifiable in the face of the climate crisis.” She was particularly disturbed by how many flights seemed unnecessary, especially in an era of video conferencing. ‘This report confirms with data what we have long understood: Private jet travel is wasteful and places huge cost and environmental burdens on the rest of us.”
Bill McKibben
Co-Founder, 350.org & ThirdAct
“[On] what policies Massachusetts should adopt, McKibben said that any new fossil fuel infrastructure should be stopped…He referred to the hangar expansion proposal for private luxury jets at Hanscom Field this way: ‘It’s the single most ludicrous idea I’ve ever heard. They ought to rename it Carbon Dioxide Field. Find a way,” he added, ‘to knock that down fast.’”
Elizabeth Turnbull Henry
President, Environmental League of Massachusetts
“’Expanding highways increases cars; expanding private jet capacity increases private jets,’ said Elizabeth Turnbull Henry, president of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, who compared the [proposed Hanscom] hangars to ‘building a climate bomb.’”